Chapter 525

“Not only do I not want to ever play poker with you, add your mates to that as well,” Ben-David said.

“Why, you might win some money,” I replied.

“Lose my ass may be more like it. All of you have poker faces and voices made of stone. I was at Camp Smith Saturday and Sunday; when I asked where you were, the only thing they said was you were away on business for a few days and nothing else. Not even a change of expression,” Ben said.

“Balthazar gave away the two Iranian spies in Polokwane when we questioned him on Saturday. I sent people to look for them, only to walk into a hornet’s nest at the airport, barely getting away with their lives,” Ben-David said.

“Not only were the two spies gone, everyone connected with them is dead. Two Princes and every terrorist’s favorite arms dealer are dead. A Chinese arms dealer dead, his plane burned,” Ben-David said.

“There were remains of bodies in half a dozen places in the game reserve; the reptiles did not even leave enough to identify. Just how many people did you kill there? Everybody in Africa is out looking for blood,” he added.

“First, all the reports I have seen says it was ISIS. Second, it sounds like a Mossad operation to me. Third, what makes you think I was in Africa at all?” I replied.

“What was left of the Prince’s plane was found in Mexico today,” Ben-David said.

“Yes, I saw that report. The Prince was dealing with the cartel; we already knew that and so was his arms dealer. It looks to me like ISIS and the cartel turned on him for something. Blackmail, maybe blood money? Both are heavy into that business. Did ISIS just send the Kingdom a message to keep sending money or else?” I asked.

“BJ, you are throwing a good smoke screen; it may work with others. You expect me to believe the most wanted on your list is dead the same weekend you are out of town and you had nothing to do with it?” Ben David asked.

“I have no problem sleeping at night,” I replied.

“Look who you get sleep with, no wonder,” he said.

“You can feed me the juicy bits of the mission when I see you,” Ben-David said just before the phone went click.

At the office I ran into Robert. “Burt and I want to wait until next month to take the extra two weeks off. There is a convention on the gulf coast we want to go to then, if that is OK?” Robert said.

“That’s fine, just note it on your time sheet and block the weeks you want to on your schedule,” I replied.

“How are things in EIT land?” I asked.

“Very busy trying to keep up with all the email connections associated with the Prince’s computer. Stop by on your way through the tunnel and look at some of the more interesting ones,” he replied.

“I want all the emails printed out of the Prince’s account as far back as you can go, before the account disappears. I want a hard copy record. Make sure that laptop does not accidentally get online doing automatic updates or the like. Take the battery out of it,” I said.

“Already ahead of you on that. All his accounts were copied to files and everything printed. Burt did the same thing with the financial transactions. You may want to take a close look at Burt’s printout. I’m sure that you have not tracked down everyone he was dealing with in the US,” Robert replied.

“I put the printout on your desk with the computer. We have already cloned everything on it. I left the bank transfers making it look like he did them by leaving the computer online for an hour after he was dead. I figure at some time you may want to turn the computer over to someone. There is a lot of very good information on the first few pages you should look at. I am sure it will help you,” Robert added.

I put the folder, printouts and computer in my portable office; I would look over them later today if I had the chance.

I sure hoped that we or the task force was getting to the end of some of the trails! I wanted things to slow down.

Of course I was wrong, those things were not going to be slowing down for a while. Acknowledging that we had Balthazar was a mistake. The Prince told me that Iran has hundreds of agents in the US. As soon as the IRG knew, orders for all of them to get mobile would go out.

Within hours they all would know and scatter, destroying any Intel that we could use against them or to find them covering their trails.